Kansas basketball’s March Madness opponent is Samford to open 2024 NCAA tournament bracket
LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball learned Sunday when and where it’ll start its NCAA tournament path in 2024.
The Jayhawks (22-10) will tip off March Madness as a No. 4 seed in the Midwest region. They’ll face off against No. 13-seed Samford (29-5) on Thursday at 8:55 p.m. (CT) in Salt Lake City in the round of 64. And the winner of this matchup, which will be televised on TBS, will advance to face either No. 5-seed Gonzaga or No. 12-seed McNeese in the round of 32.
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Kansas’ season hasn’t gone as planned as coach Bill Self and company have made their way into postseason play. A chance at the Big 12 Conference regular-season crown slipped away as the regular season came to a close, and a quick exit before the quarterfinals of the conference tournament followed. But the Jayhawks’ season has a chance to be viewed far differently than it’s being described right now if they can put together a run.
Both graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. and senior center Hunter Dickinson are set to return after missing the Big 12 tournament due to injury. That would give Kansas a pair of All-America caliber talents that help give the team a chance against anyone. As long as the likes of redshirt senior guard Dajuan Harris Jr., junior forward KJ Adams Jr. and freshman guard Johnny Furphy can put the disappointment of this past week behind them, the Jayhawks will have a chance to at least make it past the first weekend.
Although Kansas saw its 2023 NCAA tournament run end in the round of 32, the Jayhawks also didn’t have Self on the sideline due to his health scare. There’s more to making it past that point this year than simply having Self at the games — like better shooting performances for one thing — but it’s certainly an advantage. The team will be striving for a national championship, which would be the third of the Self era in Lawrence and the program’s first since 2022.
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball March Madness opponent is Samford in NCAA tournament
